Bear bile - China was the first country to use bile and its storage organ, the gall bladder, as ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Bear bile was first recorded in "Tang Ban Cao" (Newly Revised Materia Medica, Tang Dynasty, 659 A.D.). For thousands of years, the traditional way to acquire bear bile was to kill a wild bear and remove its gall bladder. The use of bear bile in medicines was adopted by Korea and Japan centuries ago as a part of TCM. In the 21st century, the use of TCM is widespread, not only in Asia but also throughout Asian communities in other areas of the world.In the early 1980s, bile bear farms began appearing in North Korea, and then spread to other regions.